Gu leaving gallery | After six years as executive director at Gallery Stratford, Zhe Gu is moving on to take up a position as visual arts director with the Ontario Arts Council. She will wind up her duties at the Stratford gallery at the end of June and begin her new responsibilities in Toronto on July 2. Beacon Herald, May 21, 2013

Rooms CEO withdraws candidacy for NSCAD presidency Last week, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) announced that Dean Brinton had been named the top candidate to become its next president. Brinton, who is a native Newfoundlander and Labradorian, has been CEO of The Rooms since 2004. The Telegram, St. John’s, May 22, 2013

Boston

Isn’t It Time To Recognize Great Women Architects? Next week on May 29 the Pritzker Prize will be awarded to Toyo Ito, of Tokyo, who will receive his bronze medal and $100,000 in a formal ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in Rotterdam on Feb. 8, 2005. Though the pair collaborated on projects throughout their career, the jury of the Pritzker Prize selected only Venturi to receive its prestigious award. Female architects don’t often attract the attention of the Pritzker jury. Of the Pritzker’s 37, only two were women, Zaha Hadid, of the U.K., and Kazuyo Sejima, of Japan. Bloomberg, May 21, 2013

The Whitney’s New Logo (Having It All Ways?) From the museum’s description of the logo: “It shows the Whitney as an institute that is breathing (in and out), an institute that is open and closed at the same time. An institute that goes back and forth between the past and the future, moving from one opposite to the other (history and present, the ‘Old World’ and the ‘New World’, between the industrial and the sublime, etc.), while still moving forward.” Hyperallergic, May 21, 2013

The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art’ The Pop Art show at Acquavella includes work by Roy Lichtenstein, Stephen Antonakos, Robert Arneson and H. C. Westermann. New York Times, May 21, 2013

Glasgow

The Architecture Of Antarctica “It is no coincidence that many of the buildings in the first exhibition on architecture in Antarctica, shaped like caterpillars or icebergs, on stilts or stubby legs, will look like science-fiction illustrations – the storms, blizzards, extremes of temperature, darkness and howling winds they have been designed to withstand are so extreme that conditions have been likened to those on Mars.” The Guardian (UK) May 21, 2013

Naples

Conquistador letter found One of the oldest letters sent to the New World, dated 15 October 1522, has been found in the State Archive in Naples after disappearing for more than a century. The Art Newspaper, May 22, 2013

Ai Weiwei uses music to mock state power in China Emotionless prison guards watch Ai Weiwei eat, sleep, pace, shower and even sit on the toilet in the Chinese artist’s new obscenity-filled, metaphor-rich music video mocking state power. CBC, May 22, 2013

Ai Weiwei Launches His Rock Star Career With ‘Dumbass’ “The Chinese artist … has always had something of the rock star about him. Now his hotly anticipated musical debut has finally emerged blinking into the glare of international attention: the self-proclaimed heavy metal single ‘Dumbass'” – complete with video by superstar cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The Guardian (UK) May 22, 2013 (includes video)

China’s Museum Boom Doesn’t Necessarily Include Museum Visitors “In recent years, about 100 museums have opened annually here, peaking at nearly 400 in 2011, according to the Chinese Society of Museums. The frenzied construction of cultural infrastructure follows earlier building binges involving roads and bridges. But it’s harder to manage a museum than a highway. For one thing, you need to fill museums with worthwhile exhibits and visitors.” NPR, May 22, 2013